After a dentist has performed one of a variety of types of surgery in the mouth of a patient, it is necessary to protect the surgical site. For that purpose, it is common practice to use a so-called "pack" in the form of an elastomer plastic. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, it is difficult to maintain the pack in place and they tend to become loosened, lost prematurely, and sometimes even swallowed. If this occurs, the surgerized tissue is not protected and the resulting trauma may cause pain, hemorrhage, or susceptibility to infection. A particularly important use for the pack is in the case of the free gingival graft where it is difficult to retain the pack on the donor site on the palate. In that case, it is particularly important to protect the site from which the tissue surface has been removed. Prior to the present invention, the only method of pack retention with any efficiency at all was the "surgical stent" which is a custom-made appliance. These appliances are very time consuming and expensive to make and are relatively uncomfortable for the patient. For these reasons, they are not usually constructed unless very extensive donor sites require dressing (surgical pack). The stent can easily be too lose or too tight, resulting in the loss of the pack. The stent also often allows liquids to seep to the raw tissue causing severe pain. Attempts have been made in the past to provide a means of holding the pack in place, but they have been less than successful, particularly when the wound was located in the palate. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide an oral pack retention device to maintain a surgical pack securely in place.
Another object of this invention is the provision of an appliance for periodontal or oral surgical use, where the wound is located on the palate.
Still another object of this invention is the provision of an oral pack system adapted to hold a non-sticking dressing over a wound within the mouth.
An additional object of this invention is the provision of an oral pack system adapted to hold medication in a cavity in the mouth.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a surgical pack retention device that is adaptable to all positions in the mouth irrespective of the shape, nature, or location of the tooth.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a periodontal appliance which is simple and rugged in construction, which can be readily manufactured from easily obtainable materials, and which is capable of being sterilized either by autoclave or high dry heat.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a periodontal appliance which is inexpensive to manufacture and which can be easily applied to either large or small surgical sites.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.